The real joy of reaction games is when things go wrong. Befuzzled from Fun Q Games gleefully directs players to perform the silliest actions in a split second. Your adrenaline is pumping, the decibels of laughter are crowding out all rational thought, and when the card is flipped, you know that you are supposed to flap your arms like a chicken but instead you moo like a cow and make binoculars with your fingers.
Great fun. Major Fun.
Befuzzled is simple party game played with cards that encourages a great deal of competitive silliness. The game consists of three types of cards. There are 24 Action Cards. These tell the players what to do. There are 8 Shape Cards. These are each paired with one of the Action Cards. There are 40 Flip Cards. These tell the players when to take an action.
Eight Action Cards are dealt face up. A shape card is placed on top of the Action Card so that everyone can see the shape and read the action. The Flip Cards are flipped by one of the players, called the judge. The Flip Card reveals a shape. All players, other than the judge, try to be the first to do the action that matches the shape. The judge must watch the players closely to determine who performed the correct action first.
In the case of a tie, the judge may be …er… persuaded, or the judge may order a tie-breaker of some kind.
As with a lot of reaction games, the rounds become more chaotic as they progress. In early rounds, players are looking for the shapes and reading the actions. After a few rounds, memory and instinct and anticipation kick in, and that’s when the mistakes start to happen. For me, the whole right-hand vs. left-hand concept seemed to get chucked out the window. More than once I had to bite back the phrase, “This is my left hand,” because I did indeed have my right hand in the air.
But it is the mark of a good game, a fun game, a Major Fun game, that the mistakes are as enjoyable as the win.
OK. Almost as enjoyable.
Befuzzled by Jeanine Calkin and Daniel Calkin. Illustration by Christine Payson and graphic design by Grand Prix Design Squad. © 2011 Fun Q Games, Inc.